Singapore is a rapidly developing country with a lot of multinational companies having offices there. Investments from foreigners are also easy there, which makes the development rate higher. Paying bills is also easy with electronic payment in place. DBS Bank, a Singapore based bank offers bill pay service with their online banking. The bank has its operations in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Indonesia as well. They have over 250 branches in 17 markets.

In Singapore, DBS Bank has partnered with over 150 corporations for enabling customer to pay bills online. All of the billers are supported for payment by internet banking and phone banking and some of them by personal banking. Some of them are also supported for payment by ATM as well. The list of supported billers can be accessed here. If customers don’t find their biller in the list of supported companies, they can request the bank to add these billers to the list.

Customers can pay bills for utilities, telecommunication services, taxes and much more, all from their online banking account. Payment can also be made through participating organizations at anytime and anywhere through the on-the-go banking. For promoting this service, DBS Bank is offering 2 Mini Cooper cars and S$30000 in prizes the users of online bill payment could win.

The customer has control over how much has to be paid and when, they can pay at anytime from anywhere. The service is offered free of cost, which is amazing. The service is also available through POS Bank, which was merged with DBS Bank earlier in 1998.

In order to make the payments, one has to have an account with DBS Bank or POS Bank and has to apply for internet banking. Once they have applied and have got an iBanking Account, they can login and click on “Payments”. Then they need to select “Bill Payment: Manage Billing Arrangements”, add a biller and provide the customer reference number to fetch the bill information. At the bank branches, customers need to fill the Bill Payment Arrangement form and submit it over the counter to avail theservice.

Alabama is a US state which has many counties. There is a bank which serves the people of these counties, called Bank Independent. Started in 1947, the bank works hard for the welfare of the residents of Alabama. Currently, the bank is present has 27 offices in 6 counties across North West Alabama.

Services they offer include personal banking, business banking, and loans & mortgages. As part of personal banking and business banking, Bank Independent also offers bill pay services. For using both, users need to have either savings or checking accounts with the bank.

Registration can be done online through online banking in both cases. The service is offered free of cost for personal account holders and has a wide scope, which means that individuals can pay anyone including other individuals they owe money to, just with an email address. Business customers are charged a certain fee for the service.

The service has some good features including historical bill viewing for the past 18 months, scheduling multiple payments at once, viewing list of pending bills and so on. Scheduling can be done for one-time, occasional and recurring bills. Anyone in the US can be paid, as long as they have a US mailing address. Payments to a government agency or court-ordered obligation, and payments to an address outside the US are not allowed with this service.

In order to ensure payments are made on time, the user is advised to specify the due date while adding a bill, so that it is paid on that day. They also offer electronic bill presentment service for delivery on ebills. In addition a limit of $2500 per bill is applicable for online payment. For larger amounts, they send checks to the biller. For getting a predetermined limit over $2500, the interested customers should contact the customer service at Bank Independent.

Payments scheduled through mobile banking are processed immediately. Payment date can not be setup using mobile banking and recurring payments can’t be setup as well. Interested account holders at Bank Independent can make use of this service from the bank’s website.

Their one-off payment feature is unique, which is not available with most bill payment services. It allows users to pay a bill without registering for an account with MyBills. In order to pay a bill, the customer account number and a debit card are required. Registered users can setup bills for payments and select the payment method. They can also setup automatic recurring payments and schedule them. In addition, they can view historic payments and review paid bills.

MyBills

MyBills is a service provided by An Post and is not charged any fee. Users can set up maximim 2 cards on their account to pay bills from them. They can request for more cards by contacting the Help deslk. Users can also pay a part of the amount and pay the remaining amount later; each biller has a maximum and minimum amounts payable, though.

Once the payment is made, it can not be cancelled, the users should carefully enter the account number and decide whether they want to pay or not. MyBills does not support credit card payments, so users should pay bills using a debit card or a bank account.

This form can be used for registering with MyBills and for starting to pay bills.

Other than online bill payment, many countries have outlets that facilitate bill payment for most companies including utilities and other privet billers. Easy Bill is such a company that has a chain of outlets across the country for acting as one-stop-shop for bill payments, mobile phone and TV service top up, air ticket booking, train and bus ticket booking. It is a part of The Hero Group.

All a customer needs to do is walk into any of the Easy Bill outlets nearby and present the paper bill to the representative who enquires for the bill through the customer account number, amount and other details and submits it to the biller to instantly receive confirmation. The customer is then given the acknowledgement of the payment.

Easy Bill has over 10000 outlets spread across India, including pharmacies, grocery stores, mobile phone stores and other convenient locations which customers visit frequently. They are present in 100 Indian cities and have plans to expand to 250 cities in the near future. Bills that are supported include utility bills, mobile phone and telephone bills, insurance and so on. They have also partnered with major airlines, Indian Railway, major entertainment and sports channels and several bus operators in India.

Charges and billers supported may be different for each city. The support for each city can be checked from here. They also have a store locator on their website, but unfortunately, it is not working. Hopefully, it will be fixed soon, but if it isn’t, a store can be located by speaking with their customer service agents at the toll free number: 1800 11 7575.

They have a good range of services offered and they are working on more services including movie tickets. Something they could start is online services where they can offer all the services currently offered, online. Most of these services are accessible online, individually from their respective websites. But if Easy Bill can offer online payment services for all of these, it will be great.

Today, many leading banks of the world work with billing companies to enable account holders to pay bills from their account, anywhere they are; that is through online banking. Almost every country has some online bill payment service or another. First Caribbean International Bank has an online bill payment service included as a feature in their online banking service; they call it Bill Balance

First Caribbean International Bank has partnered with various billers in Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and few other countries in the Caribbean. The list of supported billers keeps changing and can be checked from here. Users can pay bills without the need for any printed document in hand.

In order to begin using the service, users need to login to internet banking and click on “Register a Bill” under Bill Payments. A participating biller has to be chosen and details pertaining to the bills have to be populated, after which, details have to be confirmed and submitted for registration. Once the biller has been added, bills are fetched automatically. All the user has to do is click on “Pay Bill” under Bill Payment and select the biller for paying the bill. Few billers also send e-bills which can be viewed online.

Alerts can also be setup in order to avoid missing a due date. In addition, automatic payment is also available. Limits can be set for maximum amount that can be paid automatically and which bill is paid automatically, provided a biller provides bill balances. Bill balances and alerts can also be viewed and managed from the online banking interface. Notifications are available for notifying about a bill paid, automatic payment made, bill balances available to view online, a bill exceeding automatic payment limit, due bills not paid and failure of payment.

Bill Balance is offered to all First Caribbean International Bank’s online banking customers, free of cost. Customers can pay bills from their saving or checking accounts.

Bill Express, a bill payment solution in the Caribbean that operates in the markets of Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Dominica, Grenada and St. Lucia, is considered to be the easiest, most secure, and most convenient online bill payment service. It is a service offered by Grace Kennedy Remittance Services (GKRS), which is a subsidiary of Grace Kennedy & Co.

Offerings of GKRS include instant money transfer in partnership with Western Union and Forex Trading, apart from online bill payment through Bill Express. With this solution, people of the Caribbean can pay their bills from anywhere in the world, by accessing their website. Apart from the internet, users can pay bills at retail locations including supermarkets; with this, they intend to ensure convenience and peace of mind.

They have provided the list of billers supported in Jamaica, because online bill payment is currently available in Jamaica only. In order to use the service, users need to sign up. While signing up, users are required to add their credit card to the account, ownership of which is confirmed by making one or two small non-refundable amounts, which, they say, is a key step in minimizing misuse of the site. After confirming the charges, users can begin using services on BillExpressOnline.com by creating a username.

The bill pay service is offered free of charge, but a fee maybe applicable if the user opts for optional services offered by GKRS on their website. However, fees maybe applicable for using the service in some markets. This can be confirmed from this link, which consists of the details about the applicable fees. Once the user makes a payment, the payment information is sent to the biller by the end of the business hours on the same day.

Their website is simple, but informative and to the point. Hopefully, they will start the online bill pay service in other countries they operate in as well. Apart from this, they should also look to expand in order to operate in other areas of the Caribbean.